BLOOD – Part 2 – Thoughts of a Medstudent

Previously on BLOOD!

“My name is Akin! Sometimes people dey call me ‘Gateman! Gateman!’ but I like when person call me ‘Akin’, I like am well well”.

Akin started opening other people’s gate when he was 16. He started opening Chief’s gate, the Chief on Bode Street; Chief had four grown boys that couldn’t open their own gate, so Akin was hired to do that for them. He worked with Chief for a little over six months and then the time came when they didn’t think he deserved the pay, so they accused him of theft and sent him away.
Without employment and money to feed, Akin walked the street devastated until he came across a sign over a tall black gate that said “Gateman wanted!”, overjoyed he knocked on the door. Akin would later find out that the house belong to Chief Okeke and his wife, he would find that they have two daughters – Ada and Chigozie. Akin would find out that his job was to watch the gate, screen who comes in and watch who goes out.
Chief Okeke had seen the need to get a gateman after his excited ten year old son had ran out the gate to play with some of his friends on the adjoining street, free and unsupervised he had been knocked down by a vehicle and into a gutter where he would bleed and die.
Over the years, Akin’s job increased from just opening the gate to washing the cars and running errands.

A week ago, Akin woke up high spirited.

Ada had rice and beans for breakfast and Akin got a large serving with a large piece of chicken. He would sit at the balcony where he usually sat when invited to eat by Ada and eat his food in silence only raising his head to speak when his mouth was without food (Madam Ada had taught him this as ‘manners’)

‘Madam Ada, this food remind me well well of your mama’, Akin would say

And following the smile on Ada’s face he continued “well na she teach you cooking”

‘True, she taught me everything I know – how to cook, how to sew!’

“Sometimes, I go sit don they think say I miss Chief and Madam” Akin said, putting a spoonful of the meal in his mouth.

The two would talk about Chief Okeke and his wife for a few minutes, and Ada would get up to go into the kitchen and later to her little office where all the pretty dresses she sewed were often produced.
That day, Akin would open the gate twice, first for Emeka- Ada’s delivery man who has come to pick a finished product to deliver to one of Ada’s numerous clients in Lagos. He would sit to talk to Emeka about football and what not, until Ada would come out with the parcel ready to be delivered.
Next, Akin would open the gate for a strange looking man he had never seen. He would be sitting listening to his radio when he would be a disturbed by a knock at the gate. On opening the gate, he would see a thin dark man with a black leather cross-body bag and a huge glasses to match.

“Who you they find?” Akin would ask

‘Adanna Okeke!’, the man would reply.

“Who you be?”

‘Tell her ‘Press’, she’s expecting me!’

Akin would tightly bolt the gate and run towards the big house where he would speak with Ada and be permitted to allow this man in. Still unsettled by the man, he would walk him into the sitting room where seated quietly was Ada.

Ada would get up to shake hands with the strange man and would immediately mutter ‘A few minutes, that’s all you get’.

Akin who by this time is still standing at a corner will be waved off and asked to leave. He would later sit out at the gate house wondering who the strange man that came to see Ada is and what ‘Press’ even meant.
About forty minutes later the man would come out along with Ada and then hurriedly head for the gates and quickly into his car and be out of sight. All this while, Akin starring at the man, would now walk to the balcony where Ada is now sitting.

‘Madam, every fine?’

“Yes, thank you”

‘You sure well well?’

“Yes. Thank you Akin!”

‘If you want make I do anything, I dey my side’, Akin would say and turn to the gate house.

Ada would need Akin to run an errand for her, just before the day ended, so she would call Akin who would come running towards her.

Madam! I am here, any wahala?’, he would say

“Oh no, no problem, I just want you to check that vulcanizer down the road, for my tyres he was meant to patch” Ada said as she reached for her purse and counted a few Naira notes, rolling them and handing it to Akin.

“Help me collect the tyre if he is done and pay him”.

Akin would hurriedly head for the vulcanizer’s place, however, he would meet the man working on the tyre and he would have to wait, although angry at the man for choosing to work on the tyre when it was late when he had all day.

And when the tyre have been patched, he would happily begin to roll it down the street to the house, singing a song he had heard many times at the music shop close to the house where there was almost always music playing, well except there wasn’t light.
He would fling the gate open and so would his mouth go open as well.

Madam Ada!

He would scream running around a weak body of Ada on the floor, blood on the floor, Ada attempting to lift her hands to reach for him.

Wetin happen. What is this? Who do this?

He would immediately run out the street, shouting for help, gathering the attention of the neighbours who would come running into the house with him.

‘Where did you go?’ One would ask.

Aaah it no reach thirty minutes wey madam say make I go vulcanizer. See the tyre na

‘We need to call somebody’ Another would say.

So Akin would reach for Ada’s phone and make a shaky call to Chigozie, Ada’s younger sister.

‘I have called a Taxi’ Another would yell from the gates.

And Akin would be instructed to carry Ada to the near-by hospital.

‘Wetin happen, nor be now I see Madam sitdon for balcony? Who go wan kill Madam’ Akin would be saying to himself as the taxi drove Ada to the hospital.

‘Make Madam no die! Make Madam no die!’

That was a week ago, now Ada is back home, and Akin is back to manning the gates, he has vowed to do a better job at it and not ever leave the gates unattended to.
Today, he would notice a taxi parked outside the house and there Ada would be holding her side and a little black bag heading out of the house.

“Madam, where you they go?”

‘I don’t know’

“But your nurse dey come today na”, Akin would reply concerned.

“You nor like the nurse? Make hospital change am?”

‘Akin you would not understand’ Ada would reply, handing Akin a huge envelope.

‘Take that, it is for you’ Ada would say.

‘You dey go hospital? Madam you never well to dey comot na’

‘Make I call Aunty Chigozie first, abeg’

“Am I a child? Don’t call her’

‘Akin, the lawyer would come tomorrow for the keys’, Ada says handing Akin a bunch of keys to the house.

Ada opens the gates and the door to the taxi waiting outside. She gets in.

“Madam, when are you coming back?” Akin asks

“I don’t know! I don’t know!” Ada replies

And the taxi came on and was gone down the street.

Where Madam dey go? Who dey after her life?

She run comot hospital, say she dey fear for dere, nurse dey come see am for house. Now she no wan nurse, she nefa well finish, she dey comot house,

Where Madam dey go? Me sef I no know.Wetin I go talk if dem ask me now, ehn?

Thanks for reading today, next and final episode Sunday August 28th at Noon.

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